Free Book Download: Diana Russell’s Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (explicit)

Diana Russell, a longtime activist against pornography, has kindly permitted us to make Against Pornography available for downloading at no charge. Please use the links below.

Dr. Russell is Professor Emerita of Sociology at Mills College, Oakland, California. She has been active in the women’s liberation movement since 1969, and is author or editor of 17 books. She obtained a Postgraduate Diploma (with Distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1961, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1970.

Against Pornography is unusual in that it goes beyond abstract discussions of pornography to present the raw material, so readers can judge for themselves. Dr. Russell reprints and analyzes over 100 cartoons and pictures from publications like Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and Cheri. She writes,

I have found that showing pornography is an effective and rapid consciousness-raiser about misogyny and male views of women. It helps to enhance women’s understanding of many males’ dangerous notions of what it is to be a man. It often also succeeds in arousing women viewers’ anger (and some men’s) at the contempt and hatred of women they see in the pictures and captions. [File 1, p.16]

We have divided Dr. Russell’s book into five Adobe PDF files. You may download them below and read them with Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader. Please note that the text and images in the book are explicit, and many will find them disturbing. These files should not be viewed by anyone under the age of 18.

Some of the text in these PDFs may appear slightly fuzzy on screen, but it is reasonably crisp when printed out. A trade paperback copy of the book may be ordered directly from Dr. Russell here.

Here are some highlights from the book:

Pornographers invariably see feminists as their enemies. For example, this is what Playboy owner Hugh Hefner has been quoted as saying to his staff: “These chicks are our natural enemy… It is time we do battle with them… What I want is a devastating piece that takes the militant feminists apart.” [File 1, p.x, and DianaRussell.com]

A particularly important feature of my definition of pornography is the requirement that it appears to endorse, condone, or encourage abusive sexual desires or behaviors. These attributes differentiate pornography from materials that include abusive or degrading sexual behavior for educational purposes. Movies such as “The Accused” and “The Rape of Love”, for example, present realistic representations of rape with the apparent intention of helping viewers to understand the reprehensible nature of rape, and the agony experienced by rape victims. [File 1, p.5, and DianaRussell.com]

Many people have talked or written about the difficulty of defining pornography and erotica, declaring that “one person’s erotica is another person’s pornography.” This statement is often used to ridicule an anti-pornography stance. The implication is that if there is no consensus on a definition of pornography, its effects cannot be examined.

Yet there is no consensus on the definitions of many phenomena. Rape is one example. Legal definitions of rape vary considerably in different states. The police often have their own definitions, which may differ from legal definitions. If a woman is raped by someone she knows, for example, the police often “unfound” the case because they are skeptical about most acquaintance and date rapes. Hence, such crimes are rarely investigated. This practice certainly has no basis in the law…

Many rapists, for example, do not consider that forcing intercourse on an unwilling woman qualifies as rape because they think the woman’s “no” actually means “yes”. Many women think they have not been raped when the perpetrator is their husband or lover, even though the law in most states defines such acts as rape. Fortunately, few people argue that, because rape is so difficult to define and there is no consensus on the best definition of it, it should therefore not be considered a heinous and illegal act…

In contrast…[m]any people have argued that because there is no consensus on how to define pornography and/or because it can be difficult to determine whether or not the pornographic label is appropriate in particular cases, pornography should therefore not be subject to legal restraint, or even opprobrium.

It is interesting to note that lack of consensus did not prove to be an obstacle in making pictorial child pornography illegal. This makes it clear that the difficulty of defining pornography is a strategy employed by its apologists in their efforts to derail their opponents by making their work appear futile. [File 1, p.7-9, and DianaRussell.com]

Don Smith did a content analysis of 428 “adults only” paperbacks published between 1968 and 1974. His sample was limited to books that were readily accessible to the general public in the United States, excluding paperbacks that are usually available only in so-called adult bookstores (1976). He reported the following findings:

One-fifth of all the sex episodes involved completed rapes.

The number of rapes increased with each year’s output of newly published books.

Of the sex episodes, 6% involved incestuous rape. The focus in the rape scenes was almost always on the victim’s fear and terror, which became transformed by the rape into sexual passion. Over 97% of the rapes portrayed in these books resulted in orgasm for the victims. In three-quarters of these rapes, multiple orgasm occurred.

Psychologists James Check and Neil Malamuth have provided experimental evidence that pornography that is supplemented with sound educational information does not induce the negative effects that would otherwise occur (1984). On the contrary, their findings reveal that pornography shown in an educational context provides the viewer with a better understanding of the material. [File 1, p. 17; see also Male Attitudes about Rape Can Be Learned…and Unlearned]

Some readers may be disturbed to find themselves becoming sexually aroused by some pornographic pictures in this book despite their awareness, perhaps even abhorrence, of the misogyny they reveal. This may engender feelings of self-criticism, or even self-hatred, or it may cause these readers to feel that something is wrong with them…

While I think getting turned on to pornography does signify that our culture has made some destructive inroads into a person’s psyche, as is similarly signified by discovering racist attitudes in oneself, this is no reason to embrace either pornography or racism. Rather, it indicates the importance of fighting against these phenomena for both personal and political reasons.

However, there is reason for great concern when those who feel aroused by pornography (or racism) become advocates or defenders of it. Many unhealthy practices are promoted in all societies, such as the consumption of unnutritional foods, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, spending beyond one’s means. That such practices are–like pornography–encouraged in Western cultures is no reason to accept them as harmless, or to take a laissez faire attitude to them. Rather, the more destructive they are found to be, the more strenuously they should be resisted, on both personal and public levels. This book provides evidence to show that pornography qualifies as deserving the most strenuous opposition we can muster. [File 1, p.20-21]

[P]ornography can induce desire to rape women in males who previously had no such desire, and can increase or intensify the desire to rape in males who already have felt this desire…

The laws of social learning (for example, classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, and social modeling), about which there is now considerable consensus among psychologists, apply to all the mass media, including pornography. As Donnerstein testified at the Hearings in Minneapolis: “If you assume that your child can learn from Sesame Street how to count one, two, three, four, five, believe me, they can learn how to pick up a gun” (Donnerstein, 1983, p.11). Presumably, males can learn equally well how to rape, beat, sexually abuse, and degrade females.

A simple application of the laws of social learning suggests that viewers of pornography can develop arousal responses to depictions of rape, murder, child sexual abuse, or other assaultive behavior. Researcher S. Rachman of the Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London, has demonstrated that male subjects can learn to become sexually aroused by seeing a picture of a woman’s boot after repeatedly seeing women’s boots in association with sexually arousing slides of nude females (Rachman and Hodgson, 1968). The laws of learning that operated in the acquisition of the boot fetish can also teach males who were not previously aroused by depictions of rape to become so. All it may take is the repeated association of rape with arousing portrayals of female nudity (or clothed females in provocative poses).

Even for males who are not sexually excited during movie portrayals of rape, masturbation subsequent to the movie reinforces the association. This constitutes what R.J. McGuire, J.M. Carlisle and B.G. Young refer to as “masturbatory conditioning” (Cline, 1974, p.210). The pleasurable experience of orgasm–an expected and planned-for activity in many pornography parlors–is an exceptionally potent reinforcer. The fact that pornography is widely used by males as ejaculation material is a major factor that differentiates it from other mass media, intensifying the lessons that male consumers learn from it. [File 4, p.122-123, and DianaRussell.com]

When children do what they see in pornography, it is even more improbable than in the case of adults to attribute their behavior entirely to their predispositions.

Psychologist Jennings Bryant testified to the Pornography Commission about a survey he had conducted involving 600 telephone interviews with males and females who were evenly divided into three age groups: students in junior high school, students in high school, and adults aged 19 to 39 years (1985, p.133). Respondents were asked if “exposure to X-rated materials had made them want to try anything they saw” (1985, p.140). Two-thirds of the males reported “wanting to try some of the behavior depicted” (1985, p.140). Bryant reports that the desire to imitate what is seen in pornography “progressively increases as age of respondents decreases” (1985, p.140; emphasis added). Among the junior high school students, 72% of the males reported that “they wanted to try some sexual experiment or sexual behavior that they had seen in thier initial exposure to X-rated material” (1985, p.140).

In trying to ascertain if imitation had occurred, the respondents were asked: “Did you actually experiment with or try any of the behaviors depicted [within a few days of seeing the materials]?” (1985, p.140). A quarter of the males answered that they had… Male high school students were the most likely (31%) to report experimenting with the behaviors portrayed (1985, p.141). [File 4, p.126-127, and DianaRussell.com]

If males believe that women enjoy rape and find it sexually exciting, this belief is likely to undermine the inhibitions of some of those who would like to rape women. Sociologists Diana Scully and Martha Burt have reported that rapists are particularly apt to believe rape myths (Burt, 1980; Scully, 1985). Scully, for example, found that 65% of the rapists in her study believed that “women cause their own rape by the way they act and the clothes they wear”; and 69% agreed that “most men accused of rape are really innocent.” However, as Scully points out, it is not possible to know if their beliefs preceded their behavior or constitute an attempt to rationalize it. Hence, findings from the experimental data are more telling for our purposes than these interviews with rapists.

As the myth that women enjoy rape is widely held, the argument that consumers of pornography realize that such portrayals are false, is totally unconvincing (Brownmiller, 1975; Burt, 1980; Russell, 1975). Indeed, several studies have shown that portrayals of women enjoying rape and other kinds of sexual violence can lead to increased acceptance of rape myths in both males and females. In an experiment conducted by Neil Malamuth and James Check, for example, one group of college students saw a pornographic depiction in which a woman was portrayed as sexually aroused by sexual violence, and a second group was exposed to control materials. Subsequently, all subjects were shown a second rape portrayal. The students who had been exposed to the pornographic depiction of rape were significantly more likely than the students in the control group (1) to perceive the second rape victim as suffering less trauma; (2) to believe that she actually enjoyed it; and (3)
to believe that women in general enjoy rape and forced sexual acts (Check and Malamuth, 1985, p.419).

Other examples of the rape myths that male subjects in these studies are more apt to believe after viewing pornography are as follows: “A woman who goes to the home or the apartment of a man on their first date implies that she is willing to have sex”; “Any healthy woman can successfully resist a rapist if she really wants to”; “Many women have an unconscious wish to be raped, and many then unconsciously set up a situation in which they are likely to be attacked”; “If a girl engages in necking or petting and she lets things get out of hand, it is her own fault if her partner forces sex on her” (Briere, Malamuth, and Check, 1985, p.400).

In Maxwell and Check’s 1992 study of 247 high school students…they found very high rates of what they called “rape supportive beliefs”, that is, acceptance of rape myths and violence against women. The boys who were the most frequent consumers of pornography and/or who reported learning a lot from it, were more accepting of rape supportive beliefs than their peers who were less frequent consumers and/or who said they had not learned as much from it. [File 4, p.132-133, and DianaRussell.com]

In one of his early experiments, Malamuth, along with his colleagues, Haber and Feshach (1980), reported that after reading the account of a violent rape by a stranger, 17% of their male student subjects admitted that there was some likelihood that they might behave in a similar fashion in the same circumstances. However, 53% of the same male students said there was some likelihood that they might act as the rapist did if they could be sure of getting away with it. The 36% difference in these percentages reveals the significant role that can be played by social inhibitions against acting out rape desires. My hypothesis is that pornography also plays a role in undermining some males’ social inhibitions against acting out their desire to rape.

In his content analysis of 150 pornographic home videos, Palys investigated “whether aggressive perpetrators ever received any negative consequences for their aggressive activity–if charges were laid, or the person felt personal trauma, or had some form of ‘just deserts'” (1986, p. 32). The answer was no in 73% of the cases in which a clear-cut answer was ascertainable. Similarly, Don Smith (1976) found that fewer than 3% of the rapists portrayed in the 428 pornographic books he analyzed were depicted as experiencing any negative consequences as a result of their behavior. Indeed, many of them were rewarded. The common portrayal in pornography of rape as easy to get away with probably contributes to the undermining of some males’ social inhibitions against the acting out of their rape desires.

If there were more effective social sanctions against pornography, this would almost certainly increase the reluctance of some people to participate in the pornography industry. There are many reasons why progressive people are strenuously opposed to government efforts to censor pornography. There are, however, many alternative kinds of sanctions that need to be explored. For example, many women have been forced to participate in pornography against their will. I would have thought that pornographic publications that publish photos of these women would be accessories after the fact to false imprisonment, rape, assault, and sometimes, possibly, murder. [File 4, p.138-139, and DianaRussell.com]

Most adult rape victims are not shown pornography in the course of being raped, although the testimony of prostitutes reveals that this is quite a common experience for many who are raped (Everywoman, 1988; Russell, 1993a). But pornography is more often used to try to persuade a woman or child to engage in certain acts, to legitimize the acts, and to undermine their resistance, refusal, or disclosure of these acts. Donald Mosher, for example, reported in his 1971 study that 16% of the “sex calloused” male students had attempted to obtain intercourse by showing pornography to a woman, or by taking her to a “sexy” movie. When this strategy succeeds in manipulating women into so-called sex play, it can make women very vulnerable to date rape.

In a more recent study conducted in Canada, Charlene Senn found that “the more pornography women were exposed to, the more likely they were to have been forced or coerced into sexual activity they did not want” (1992). In addition, a male was present in most of the cases in which women were exposed to pornography. This suggests that most women who consume pornography do so because a man wants them to (1992). This is a particularly important finding because the media have made much of the alleged fact that increasing numbers of women are renting pornographic videos, presuming that they do so for their own gratification. [File 4, p.140, and DianaRussell.com]

Larry Baron and Murray Straus (1984) undertook a 50-state correlational analysis of reported rape rates and the circulation rates of eight pornographic magazines: Chic, Club, Forum, Gallery, Genesis, Hustler, Oui, and Playboy. A highly significant correlation (+0.64) was found between reported rape rates and circulation rates. Baron and Straus attempted to ascertain what other factors might possibly explain this correlation. Their statistical analysis revealed that the proliferation of pornographic magazines and the level of urbanization explained more of the variance in rape rates than the other variables investigated (for example, social disorganization, economic inequality, unemployment, sexual inequality).

In another important study, Mary Koss conducted a large national survey of over 6,000 college students selected by a probability sample of institutions of higher education (Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski, 1987). She found that college males who reported behavior that meets common legal definitions of rape were significantly more likely than college males who denied such behavior to be frequent readers of at least one of the following magazines: Playboy, Penthouse, Chic, Club, Forum, Gallery, Genesis, Oui and Hustler (Koss and Dinero, 1989). [File 4, p.143, and DianaRussell.com]

After perusing your site, I was not surprised, but was disappointed, that a majority of the articles or books available for review are those that only support the anti-porn message. Many of the articles discussing studies about the social effects of porn appear to be supported by unreliable evidence. The site offers a free book download of Diana Russell’s book, “Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm”. It includes multiple studies that were completed in the 1970’s, 80’s with the most recent dated in 1995. Another factor that should make a reader skeptical is the fact that many of the experimental groups used are small in number and fail to be a true representation of the population under study. it is important for readers to recognize that to make an INFORMED decision CORRELATIONAL DOES NOT MEAN CAUSAL. Correlation is defined as “a relation existing between phenomena or things or between mathematical or statistical variables which tend to vary, be associated, or occur together in a way not expected on the basis of chance alone”. This is different from the definition of a cause which is defined as “something that brings about an effect or a result. None of the studies throughout the excerpt of Ms. Russell’s book list a causal connection between pornography and the harmful effects discussed. A finding based on a correlation only signifies a relationship between porn use and the effects; however, porn is not the cause!! Nopornnorthampton addresses the issue of correlation and causation quoting statistics and information expert, Edward Tufte who stated “Correlation is not causation but it sure is a hint.” Thankfully it takes more than a “hint” to deprive an individual or business of their first amendment rights to engage in controversial speech like pornography.

After reviewing the comments on Mopornnorthampton, it appears this site practices censorship by refusing to post any comments which may contain opposing views. I realize that Nopornnorthampton has the right to moderate the comments posted on their site; however, how does this help to increase awareness about porn or educate the public? If Northpornhampton’s true purpose was to educate, why do they seek to limit any opposing views on their site? How is a person to make an informed choice where all the information is based on a one-sided view of porn based on lackluster evidence of pornography’s effects and comments by those with anti porn views? I believe the site is disguising their purpose of “increasing awareness” as a pretext to censor the public’s views about pornography. I understand that Nopornnorthhampton is entitled to express their views. I just wish they would stop trying to give the impression that their purpose is to inform. I bet there is a correlation between having objective information and making an informed decision. What about this “hint” Nopornnorthhampton?

Sure, correlation does not equal causation. This issue has come up before. However, the connections between porn, secondary effects, and influences on people’s behavior are substantial, logical and compelling. The onus is now on the opposition to produce counter-evidence that is at least as substantial, logical and compelling. To state that we can’t model human behavior with the rigor of geometry doesn’t mean we can’t ever have any useful insights into our behavior and what influences it.

The claim that we don’t provide sufficient space or attention to opposition arguments is unfair and inaccurate. We invite all readers to compare NoPornNorthampton with TalkBackNorthampton and MoPornNorthampton to see who engages the matter comprehensively and with regard for the concerns of the other side.

I apologize for the difficulty. This appears to have been a transient problem. I just successfully downloaded the PDFs as a test. Please try again. If you still have problems, please email the links in question to us at info@nopornnorthampton.org. Thanks.

I would really appreciate someone sending me the correct information who I can contact to stop my sons email from getting PORN EVERYDAY FROM LOW LIFES.He is only 11 years old. I HAVE WROTE THEM AND ASKED THEM TO PLEASE QUIT SENDING THEIR TRASH BUT THEY KEEP SENDING IT.

I appreciate your problem. I doubt that writing to spammers will get you much relief. I suggest configuring your child’s email account so that only people on an approved list (a “whitelist”) can send him email. If you use Hotmail, ask them for help if it’s not clear how to do this.

I admire your site and am pleased to learn that otherwise politically liberal people are not buying into the pornography myth of it being harmless. That said, it is disheartening to realize that most if not all of your organization is made up of people who will, time and time again, vote for left wing politicians. These kinds of politicians are the same ones who have and will continue to nominate supreme court justices who expand, not limit, the spread and influence of pornography. As much as you hate the conservative platform, they will nominate justices who are more likely to take a stand against pornography and you know it.

I am amazed and heartbroken by the information I’ve read about pornography and its effects on participants, viewers, and the wider community. I’ve read numerous references to the percentage of “adult film stars” whose early sexual experiences were violent and/or otherwise non-consensual, but I have yet to be able to find a link to the study or studies that lay out this evidence. I don’t doubt that a great many “adult film stars” were sexually abused. Anecdotal evidence seems to bear this out, as we see increasing numbers of “porn star” biographies on the bestseller lists that include harrowing tales of rape and molestation. I would, however, like to have some kind of resources to which I could point people when discussing this issue.

“I think Raffaëla [Anderson] describes the [pornographic]
world very honestly for what it really is, there are moments of
happiness, especially for a girl who never had any friends in her life,
or love from her family, and found it in this world. Not real love like
we know it, but love as it would be recognized by someone who felt
abandoned and alone. Then there’s the other side, where for a victim of
incest and rape like Raffaëla, pornography becomes a reconstruction of
the abuse she’s lived all her life. And for a lot of girls in that
world, […] love is like how they’re treated in pornography. It’s
someone who tells you how you should have sex. It’s having someone tell
you, you’re going to do this scene, like this, with this person. And
it’s exactly what they’re accustomed to, because growing up they never
got to choose… So, for me, when pornographers say, it’s fun or that
the girls like what they’re doing, I see it as lies. Because I learned
everything to the contrary. I spoke with many girls in that world and
often, I would say about 85% of those girls were victims of sexual or
physical abuse growing up.”

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About Us

NoPornNorthampton aims to increase awareness about the impact of porn on people and communities. We support the reasonable regulation of sexually oriented businesses in Northampton, Massachusetts and elsewhere. We ask businesspeople to balance profits with compassion. We do not advocate increasing government censorship of porn. For our positive vision of sexuality, visit GreenSexuality.com.